AN OPTIMISTIC STANCE FOR BAJA

There is something on the airwaves that hasn’t been heard for a long time: an optimistic discussion concerning Baja California. It is a radio discussion about the northern Baja and once well-liked tourism spots such as Rosarito Beach, Ensenada and Tijuana.

Philip Friedman, the Fish Talk Radio program host, has arranged a trip through his weekly radio program. He also announced it via his Outdoors Facebook page. Accordingly, eighteen folks have joined, including a mom along with her two kids. They made the Rosarito Beach Hotel their group’s control center, and added a fishing trip away from Ensenada as well as excursions to other places in the area.

The mother who has joined Friedman’s group has been greatly belittled by her neighbors for carrying her little ones to what they believe to be a risky surrounding. This is because everybody that focuses on the news is familiar with the war between drug gangs as well as the numerous deaths between drug lord’s ruthless subordinates and the police over the past two years in northern Baja. Those news headlines and reports, a lot of them being badly sensationalized deliberately hurt tourism in the area.

What was not usually noted, however, was that tourists were not the targets in the deaths or gang wars. Actually there are around 14,000 expatriates from the U.S. who are now living in the Rosarito Beach region and they really feel secure in their properties as well as strolling along city streets.

As a result, regretfully a number of businesses shut down. Friedman has made trips along the border over the past few years and found that U.S. tourists appeared to be having fun.

Lately, the deaths between drug gangs seems to have decreased significantly Tourists are going back again to Baja because of the efforts of people and groups like Friedman who have learned to love Baja and its folks.

Nevertheless, getting tourists’ attention is an incredibly slow process. Friedman is optimistic just like numerous Baja travel experts that holiday destinations are secure. Provided that tourists use the same sound judgment they normally use in their trips abroad as well as with other U.S. cities.

Friedman is working to get the sponsorship for at least a 15 or 30 minute radio show he calls “Baja Now”. To be able to do more, he arranges occasional trips not just in Rosarito Beach but vacation spots such as San Quintin, historical Meling Ranch, the wine country near Ensenada, San Felipe and Tijuana. To get rid of the worries of those who have been afraid to drive their car around Baja, he added a van trip from the border to go back and forth from the Rosarito Beach Hotel.

To make their trip more exciting, his group rode horses around the beach, went to taco stands and went fishing. Some simply remained in the hotel to enjoy the amenities that includes bar, restaurant, surfing beach and fishing dock.

The Baja California tourism bureau is obviously thinking about investing in an advertising campaign to put advertisements on cabs in San Diego and L.A. Everything helps and it is a great way of using resources if folks talk about Baja over the radio program on a regular basis and by giving their testimonies regarding their trips to northern Baja. They should also post it on Facebook and other social media websites to widen the reach of their campaign.

Friedman should get credit for his efforts, plus a big vote of thanks from the tourism people for carrying out what exactly he has got accomplished already. Also, he should be applauded because of the difficulties he has experienced in carrying it out: getting folks speaking confidently about Baja once again.

Source Bajatimes